MWC 2019 – Page 3 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

Mobile World Congress (MWC) is the next major tech event on the calendar, and it looks as though Microsoft will be using its press conference to unveil the next version of its mixed reality (MR) headset, HoloLens 2.0.

Hampleton Partners Hololens

Microsoft’s technical fellow and HoloLens creator Alex Kipman released a very short video teaser for the upcoming headset on his YouTube channel. It doesn’t showcase the device in any way, more alluding to several components such as a new Holographic Processing Unit (HPU) and what looks like carbon fibre sections.

The original Microsoft HoloLens launched in 2016, purely as an enterprise-focused device retailing for $3,000 USD. While the company hasn’t yet released specific details regarding price or specs, the headset is expected to feature a wider field of view (FoV) – currently, it’s a rather narrow 35-degrees – a new generation Kinect sensor, improved comfort, better battery life and is reportedly going to be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 850 processor.

It’ll be interesting to see whether Microsoft continues down the enterprise path for HoloLens 2.0, or if it’s now considering a more consumer-friendly price point for the next-generation device. Companies and organisations like NASA and Luminous Group are always the ones shown to be using HoloLens, yet developers such as HappyGiant have already ported videogames like HoloGrid: Monster Battle to the system.

HoloLens - MixedReality

Microsoft’s Mobile World Congress press event will be taking place on Sunday, 24th February 2019 at 5pm CET (11am ET), Barcelona, Spain, with CEO Satya Nadella, CVP Julia White, and of course technical fellow Alex Kipman in attendance.

When further details regarding Microsoft HoloLens 2.0 have been released, VRFocus will keep you updated.

According to a report from The Verge, an upcoming Microsoft press event is likely to offer the first glimpse of HoloLens 2.

Microsoft sent out press invites this week to an event that it will host just ahead of MWC 2019 in Barcelona next month. Official details are very limited: the company would only say that the event will include Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, CVP Julia White, and Technical Fellow Alex Kipman.

But even that gives us some clues: that Nadella will be travelling to Barcelona for MWC means this is certainly a significant press event for Microsoft. Then there’s Alex Kipmam, the visionary behind HoloLens, whose closely involved with the company’s overall AR and VR efforts. Kipman was the one to introduce the world to the original HoloLens back in 2015.

It definitely crossed our mind that the upcoming press event could be the moment when Microsoft finally takes the wraps off of HoloLens 2, especially with the original unit being inexplicably out of stock now for weeks on end.

The Verge however reports this outright, calling the event a “HoloLens 2 press event,” and noting that it marks a return to MWC for Microsoft, which in recent years hasn’t had a major presence at the show. The confidence of the headline, written by Senior Editor Tom Warren, suggests he has reason to believe this is a HoloLens 2 event beyond what’s reported in the piece itself.

HoloLens is a standalone AR headset that has had a remarkably long lifespan as a first-gen product in a brand new device category. While the original headset was positioned for developers and enterprise, Microsoft’s long-term vision is that such devices will become part of consumer’s lives too. To that end, it isn’t clear if HoloLens 2 will attempt to make the leap into the consumer space or just aim to be the next step for existing development and enterprise use-cases. Either way, HoloLens 2 is expected to be more compact than its predecessor while expanding the limited field of view of its predecessor.

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Category: MWC 2019

HoloLens 2.0 Launch Teased by Microsoft

Report: Microsoft Holding a HoloLens 2 Press Event Next Month